[301] See his careful study, "Die Sexuellen Perversitäten in der
Irrenanstalt," _Psychiatrische Bladen_, No. 2. 1899.
[302] Venturi, _Degenerazioni Psico-sessuali_, pp. 105, 133, 148, 152.
[303] J.P. West, _Transactions of the Ohio Pediatric Society_, 1895.
_Abstract in Medical Standard_, November, 1895; cases are also recorded by
J.T. Winter, "Self-abuse in Infancy and Childhood,"
_American Journal
Obstetrics_, June, 1902.
[304] Freud, _Abhandlungen zur Sexualtheorie_, pp. 36 et seq.
[305] G.E. Shuttleworth, _British Medical Journal_, October 3, 1903.
[306] See for a detailed study of sexuality in childhood, Moll's valuable
book, _Das Sexualleben des Kindes_; cf. vol. vi of these _Studies_, Ch.
II.
[307] This is, no doubt, the most common opinion, and it is frequently
repeated in text-books. It is scarcely necessary, however, to point out
that only the opinions of those who have given special attention to the
matter can carry any weight. R.W. Shufeldt ("On a Case of Female
Impotency," pp. 5-7) quotes the opinions of various cautious observers as
to the difficulty of detecting masturbation in women.
[308] This latter opinion is confirmed by Näcke so far as the insane are
concerned. In a careful study of sexual perversity in a large asylum,
Näcke found that, while moderate masturbation could be more easily traced
among men than among women, excessive masturbation was more common among
women. And, while among the men masturbation was most frequent in the
lowest grades of mental development (idiocy and imbecility), and least
frequent in the highest grades (general paralysis), in the women it was
the reverse. (P. Näcke, "Die Sexuellen Perversitäten in der Irrenanstalt,"
_Psychiatrische en Neurologische Bladen_, No. 2, 1899.)
[309] Mammary masturbation sometimes occurs; see, e.g., Rohleder, _Die
Masturbation_ (pp. 32-33); it is, however, rare.
[310] Hirschsprung pointed out this, indeed, many years ago, on the ground
of his own experience. And see Rohleder, op. cit., pp.
44-47.
[311] In many cases, of course, the physical precocity is associated with
precocity in sexual habits. An instructive case is reported (_Alienist and
Neurologist_, October, 1895) of a girl of 7, a beautiful child, of healthy
family, and very intelligent, who, from the age of three, was perpetually
masturbating, when not watched. The clitoris and mons veneris were those
of a fully-grown woman, and the child was as well informed upon most
subjects as an average woman. She was cured by care and hygienic
attention, and when seen last was in excellent condition. A medical friend
tells me of a little girl of two, whose external genital organs are
greatly developed, and who is always rubbing herself.
[312] R.T. Morris, of New York, has also pointed out the influence of
traditions in this respect. "Among boys," he remarks,
"there are
traditions to the effect that self-abuse is harmful.
Among girls, however,
there are no such saving traditions." Dr. Kiernan writes in a private
letter: "It has been by experience, that from ignorance or otherwise,
there are young women who do not look upon sexual manipulation with the
same fear that men do." Guttceit, similarly, remarks that men have been
warned of masturbation, and fear its evil results, while girls, even if
warned, attach little importance to the warning; he adds that in healthy
women, masturbation, even in excess, has little bad results. The attitude
of many women in this matter may be illustrated by the following passage
from a letter written by a medical friend in India: "The other day one of
my English women patients gave me the following reason for having taught
the 17-year-old daughter of a retired Colonel to masturbate: 'Poor girl,
she was troubled with dreams of men, and in case she should be tempted
with one, and become pregnant, I taught her to bring the feeling on
herself--as it is safer, and, after all, nearly as nice as with a man.'"
[313] H. Ellis, _Studies in the Psychology of Sex_, volume ii, "Sexual
Inversion," Chapter IV.
[314] See, also, the Appendix to the third volume of these _Studies_, in
which I have brought forward sexual histories of normal persons.
[315] E.H. Smith, also, states that from 25 to 35 is the age when most
women come under the physician's eye with manifest and pronounced habits
of masturbation.
[316] It may, however, be instructive to observe that at the end of the
volume we find an advertisement of "Dr. Robinson's Treatise on the Virtues
and Efficacy of a Crust of Bread, Eat Early in the Morning Fasting."
[317] Pouillet alone enumerates and apparently accepts considerably over
one hundred different morbid conditions as signs and results of
masturbation.
[318] "Augenkrankheiten bei Masturbanten," Knapp-Schweigger's _Archiv für
Augenheitkunde_, Bd. II, 1882, p. 198.
[319] Salmo Cohn, _Uterus und Auge_, 1890, pp. 63-66.
[320] _Fonctions du Cerveau_, 1825, vol. iii, p. 337.
[321] W. Ellis, _Treatise on Insanity_, 1838, pp. 335, 340.
[322] Clara Barrus, "Insanity in Young Women," _Journal of Nervous and
Mental Disease_, June, 1896.
[323] See, for instance, H. Emminghaus, "Die Psychosen des Kindesalters,"
Gerlandt's _Handbuch der Kinder-Krankheiten_, Nachtrag II, pp. 61-63.
[324] Christian, article "Onanisme," _Dictionnaire Encyclopédique des
Sciences Médicales_.
[325] Näcke, _Verbrechen und Wahnsinn beim Weibe_, 1894, p. 57.
[326] J.L.A. Koch, _Die Psychopathischen Minderwertigkeiten_, 1892, p. 273
et seq.
[327] J.G. Kiernan, _American Journal of Insanity_, July, 1877.
[328] Maudsley dealt, in his vigorous, picturesque manner, with the more
extreme morbid mental conditions sometimes found associated with
masturbation, in "Illustrations of a Variety of Insanity," _Journal of
Mental Science_, July, 1868.
[329] See, e.g., Löwenfeld, _Sexualleben und Nervenleiden_, 2d. ed., Ch.
VIII.
[330] Marro, _La Pubertà_, Turin, 1898, p. 174.
[331] E.C. Spitzka, "Cases of Masturbation," _Journal of Mental Science_,
July, 1888.
[332] Charles West, _Lancet_, November 17, 1866.
[333] Gowers, _Epilepsy_, 1881, p. 31. Löwenfeld believes that epileptic
attacks are certainly caused by masturbation. Féré thought that both
epilepsy and hysteria may be caused by masturbation.
[334] Ziemssen's _Handbuch_, Bd. XI.
[335] _Adolescence_, vol. i, p. 441.
[336] See a discussion of these points by Rohleder, _Die Masturbation_,
pp. 168-175.
[337] The surgeons, it may be remarked, have especially stated the
harmlessness of masturbation in too absolute a manner.
Thus, John Hunter
(_Treatise on the Venereal Disease_, 1786, p. 200), after pointing out
that "the books on this subject have done more harm than good," adds, "I
think I may affirm that this act does less harm to the constitution in
general than the natural." And Sir James Paget, in his lecture on "Sexual
Hypochondriasis," said: "Masturbation does neither more nor less harm than
sexual intercourse practiced with the same frequency, in the same
conditions of general health and age and circumstances."
[338] It is interesting to note that an analogous result seems to hold
with animals. Among highly-bred horses excessive masturbation is liable to
occur with injurious results. It is scarcely necessary to point out that
highly-bred horses are apt to be abnormal.
[339] With regard to the physical signs, the same conclusion is reached by
Legludic (in opposition to Martineau) on the basis of a large experience.
He has repeatedly found, in young girls who acknowledged frequent
masturbation, that the organs were perfectly healthy and normal, and his
convictions are the more noteworthy, since he speaks as a pupil of
Tardieu, who attached very grave significance to the local signs of sexual
perversity and excess. (Legludic, _Notes et Observations de Médecine
Légale_, 1896, p. 95.) Matthews Duncan (_Goulstonian Lectures on Sterility
in Women_, 1884, p. 97) was often struck by the smallness, and even
imperfect development, of the external genitals of women who masturbate.
Clara Barrus considers that there is no necessary connection between
hypertrophy of the external female genital organs and masturbation, though
in six cases of prolonged masturbation she found such a condition in three
(_American Journal of Insanity_, April, 1895, p. 479).
Bachterew denies
that masturbation produces enlargement of the penis, and Hammond considers
there is no evidence to show that it enlarges the clitoris, while Guttceit
states that it does not enlarge the nymphæ; this, however, is doubtful. It
would not suffice in many cases to show that large sexual organs are
correlated with masturbation; it would still be necessary to show whether
the size of the organs stood to masturbation in the relation of effect or
of cause.
[340] Thus, Bechterew ("La Phobie du Regard," _Archives de Neurologie_,
July, 1905) considers that masturbation plays a large part in producing
the morbid fear of the eyes of others.
[341] It is especially an undesirable tendency of masturbation, that it
deadens the need for affection, and merely eludes, instead of satisfying,
the sexual impulse. "Masturbation," as Godfrey well says (_The Science of
Sex_, p. 178), "though a manifestation of sexual activity, is not a sexual
act in the higher, or even in the real fundamental sense. For sex implies
duality, a characteristic to which masturbation can plainly lay no claim.
The physical, moral, and mental reciprocity which gives stability and
beauty to a normal sexual intimacy, are as foreign to the masturbator as
to the celibate. In a sense, therefore, masturbation is as complete a
negative of the sexual life as chastity itself. It is, therefore, an
evasion of, not an answer to, the sexual problem; and it will ever remain
so, no matter how surely we may be convinced of its physical
harmlessness."
[342] "I learnt that dangerous supplement," Rousseau tells us (Part I, Bk.
III), "which deceives Nature. This vice, which bashfulness and timidity
find so convenient, has, moreover, a great attraction for lively
imaginations, for it enables them to do what they will, so to speak, with
the whole fair sex, and to enjoy at pleasure the beauty who attracts them,
without having obtained her consent."
[343] "Ich hatte sie wirklich verloren, und die Tollheit, mit der ich
meinen Fehler an mir selbst rächte, indem ich auf mancherlei unsinnige
Weise in meine physische Natur sturmte, um der sittlichen etwas zu Leide
zu thun, hat sehr viel zu den körperlichen Uebeln beigetragen, unter denen
ich einige der besten Jahre meines Lebens verlor; ja ich wäre vielleicht
an diesem Verlust vollig zu Grunde gegangen, hätte sich hier nicht das
poetische Talent mit seinen Heilkraften besonders hülfreich erwiesen."
This is scarcely conclusive, and it may be added that there were many
reasons why Goethe should have suffered physically at this time, quite
apart from masturbation. See, e.g., Bielschowsky, _Life of Goethe_, vol.
i, p. 88.
[344] _Les Obsessions_, vol. ii, p. 136.
[345] A somewhat similar classification has already been made by Max
Dessoir, who points out that we must distinguish between onanists _aus
Noth_, and onanists _aus Leidenschaft_, the latter group alone being of
really serious importance. The classification of Dallemagne is also
somewhat similar; he distinguishes _onanie par impulsion_, occurring in
mental degeneration and in persons of inferior intelligence, from _onanie
par evocation ou obsession_.
[346] W. Xavier Sudduth, "A Study in the Psycho-physics of Masturbation,"
_Chicago Medical Recorder_, March, 1898. Haig, who reaches a similar
conclusion, has sought to find its precise mechanism in the
blood-pressure. "As the sexual act produces lower and falling
blood-pressure," he remarks, "it will of necessity relieve conditions
which are due to high and rising blood-pressure, such, for instance, as
mental depression and bad temper; and, unless my observation deceives me,
we have here a connection between conditions of high blood-pressure with
mental and bodily depression and acts of masturbation, for this act will
relieve these conditions and tend to be practiced for this purpose."
(_Uric Acid_, 6th edition, p. 154.)
[347] Northcote discusses the classic attitude towards masturbation,
_Christianity and Sex Problems_, p. 233.
[348] _El Ktab_, traduction de Paul de Régla, Paris, 1893.
[349] Remy de Gourmont, _Physique de l'Amour_, p. 133.
[350] Tillier, _L'Instinct Sexuel_, Paris, 1889, p. 270.
[351] G. Hirth, _Wege zur Heimat_, p. 648.
[352] Féré, in the course of his valuable work, _L'Instinct Sexuel_,
stated that my conclusion is that masturbation is normal, and that
"_l'indulgence s'impose_." I had, however, already guarded myself against
this misinterpretation.
APPENDIX A.
THE INFLUENCE OF MENSTRUATION ON THE POSITION OF WOMEN.
A question of historical psychology which, so far as I know, has never
been fully investigated is the influence of menstruation in constituting
the emotional atmosphere through which men habitually view women.[353] I
do not purpose to deal fully with this question, because it is one which
may be more properly dealt with at length by the student of culture and by
the historian, rather than from the standpoint of empirical psychology. It
is, moreover, a question full of complexities in regard to which it is
impossible to speak with certainty. But we here strike on a factor of such
importance, such neglected importance, for the proper understanding of the
sexual relations of men and women, that it cannot be wholly ignored.
Among the negroes of Surinam a woman must live in solitude during the time
of her period; it is dangerous for any man or woman to approach her, and
when she sees a person coming near she cries out anxiously: "_Mi kay! Mi
kay!_"--I am unclean! I am unclean! Throughout the world we find traces of
the custom of which this is a typical example, but we must not too hastily
assume that this custom is evidence of the inferior position occupied by
semi-civilized women. It is necessary to take a broad view, not only of
the beliefs of semi-civilized man regarding menstruation, but of his
general beliefs regarding the supernatural forces of the world.
There is no fragment of folk-lore so familiar to the European world as
that which connects woman with the serpent. It is, indeed, one of the
foundation stones of Christian theology.[354] Yet there is no fragment of
folk-lore which remains more obscure. How has it happened that in all
parts of the world the snake or his congeners, the lizard and the
crocodile, have been credited with some design, sinister or erotic, on
women?
Of the wide prevalence of the belief there can be no doubt. Among the Port
Lincoln tribe of South Australia a lizard is said to have divided man from
woman.[355] Among the Chiriguanos of Bolivia, on the appearance of
menstruation, old women ran about with sticks to hunt the snake that had
wounded the girl. Frazer, who quotes this example from the "_Lettres
édifiantes et curieuses_," also refers to a modern Greek folk-tale,
according to which a princess at puberty must not let the sun shine upon
her, or she would be turned into a lizard.[356] The lizard was a sexual
symbol among the Mexicans. In some parts of Brazil at the onset of puberty
a girl must not go into the woods for fear of the amorous attacks of
snakes, and so it is also among the Macusi Indians of British Guiana,
according to Schomburgk. Among the Basutos of South Africa the young girls
must dance around the clay image of a snake. In Polynesian mythology the
lizard is a very sacred animal, and legends represent women as often
giving birth to lizards.[357] At a widely remote spot, in Bengal, if you
dream of a snake a child will be born to you, reports Sarat Chandra
Mitra.[358] In the Berlin Museum für Volkerkunde there is a carved wooden
figure from New Guinea of a woman into whose vulva a crocodile is
inserting its snout, while the same museum contains another figure of a
snake-like crocodile crawling out of a woman's vulva, and a third figure
shows a small round snake with a small head, and closely resembling a
penis, at the mouth of the vagina. All these figures are reproduced by
Ploss and Bartels. Even in modern Europe the same ideas prevail. In
Portugal, according to Reys, it is believed that during menstruation women
are liable to be bitten by lizards, and to guard against this risk they
wear drawers during the period. In Germany, again, it was believed, up to
the eighteenth century at least, that the hair of a menstruating woman, if
buried, would turn into a snake. It may be added that in various parts of
the world virgin priestesses are dedicated to a snake-god and are married
to the god.[359] At Rome, it is interesting to note, the serpent was the
symbol of fecundation, and as such often figures at Pompeii as the _genius
patrisfamilias_, the generative power of the family.[360] In Rabbinical
tradition, also, the serpent is the symbol of sexual desire.
There can be no doubt that--as Ploss and Bartels, from whom some of these
examples have been taken, point out--in widely different parts of the
world menstruation is believed to have been originally caused by a snake,
and that this conception is frequently associated with an erotic and
mystic idea.[361] How the connection arose Ploss and Bartels are unable to
say. It can only be suggested that its shape and appearance, as well as
its venomous nature, may have contributed to the mystery everywhere
associated with the snake--a mystery itself fortified by the association
with women--to build up this world-wide belief regarding the origin of
menstruation.
This primitive theory of the origin of menstruation probably brings before
us in its earliest shape the special and intimate bond which has ever been
held to connect women, by virtue of the menstrual process, with the
natural or supernatural powers of the world. Everywhere menstruating women
are supposed to be possessed by spirits and charged with mysterious
forces. It is at this point that a serious misconception, due to ignorance
of primitive religious ideas, has constantly intruded.
It is stated that
the menstruating woman is "unclean" and possessed by an evil spirit. As a
matter of fact, however, the savage rarely discriminates between bad and
good spirits. Every spirit may have either a beneficial or malignant
influence. An interesting instance of this is given in Colenso's _Maori
Lexicon_ as illustrated by the meaning of the Maori word _atua_.
The importance of recognizing the special sense in which the word
"unclean" is used in this connection was clearly pointed out by Robertson
Smith in the case of the Semites. "The Hebrew word _tame_ (unclean)," he
remarked, "is not the ordinary word for things physically foul; it is a
ritual term, and corresponds exactly to the idea of _taboo_. The ideas
'unclean' and 'holy' seem to us to stand in polar opposition to one
another, but it was not so with the Semites. Among the later Jews the Holy
Books 'defiled the hands' of the reader as contact with an impure thing
did; among Lucian's Syrians the dove was so holy that he who touched it
was unclean for a day; and the _taboo_ attaching to the swine was
explained by some, and beyond question correctly explained, in the same
way. Among the heathen Semites,[362] therefore, unclean animals, which it
was pollution to eat, were simply holy animals."
Robertson Smith here
made no reference to menstruation, but he exactly described the primitive
attitude toward menstruation. Wellhausen, however, dealing with the early
Arabians, expressly mentions that in pre-Islamic days,
"clean" and
"unclean" were used solely with reference to women in and out of the
menstrual state. At a later date Frazer developed this aspect of the
conception of taboo, and showed how it occurs among savage races
generally. He pointed out that the conceptions of holiness and pollution
not having yet been differentiated, women at childbirth and during
menstruation are on the same level as divine kings, chiefs, and priests,
and must observe the same rules of ceremonial purity. To seclude such
persons from the rest of the world, so that the dreaded spiritual danger
shall not spread, is the object of the taboo, which Frazer compares to "an
electrical insulator to preserve the spiritual force with which these
persons are charged from suffering or inflicting, harm by contact with the
outer world." After describing the phenomena (especially the prohibition
to touch the ground or see the sun) found among various races, Frazer
concludes: "The object of secluding women at menstruation is to neutralize
the dangerous influences which are supposed to emanate from them at such
times. The general effect of these rules is to keep the girl suspended, so
to say, between heaven and earth. Whether enveloped in her hammock and
slung up to the roof, as in South America, or elevated above the ground in
a dark and narrow cage, as in New Zealand, she may be considered to be out
of the way of doing mischief, since, being shut off both from the earth
and from the sun, she can poison neither of these great sources of life by
her deadly contagion. The precautions thus taken to isolate or insulate
the girl are dictated by regard for her own safety as well as for the
safety of others.... In short, the girl is viewed as charged with a
powerful force which, if not kept within bounds, may prove the destruction
both of the girl herself and of all with whom she comes in contact. To
repress this force within the limits necessary for the safety of all
concerned is the object of the taboos in question. The same explanation
applies to the observance of the same rules by divine kings and priests.
The uncleanliness, as it is called, of girls at puberty and the sanctity
of holy men do not, to the primitive mind, differ from each other. They
are only different manifestations of the same supernatural energy, which,
like energy in general, is in itself neither good nor bad, but becomes
beneficent or malignant according to its application."[363]
More recently this view of the matter has been further extended by the
distinguished French sociologist, Durkheim.
Investigating the origins of
the prohibition of incest, and arguing that it proceeds from the custom of
exogamy (or marriage o